Before automation, consumers generally formed patties of food product by hand. However, demand (e.g., the fast-food industry) for high-speed and high-volume production of food products led to the development of automated machines configured to provide molded food product. Generally, such machines mold the food product under pressure into patties of various shapes and sizes. A typical application for food product molding machines is in the production of hamburger patties. Yet, the type of food product (e.g., vegetables, meat, fish, etc.) and shape (e.g., rods, patties, etc.) can vary. The molded food products are distributed to restaurants, grocery stores, etc. The demand for high volume, high-speed food product molding machinery continues to grow.
However, prior art food product molding machines have several drawbacks. For example, known molding machine use hydraulic or mechanical crank systems to reciprocate the lateral back and forth motion of a mold plate from a fill position to a patty discharge position. These hydraulic and mechanical crank systems are cumbersome to install and maintain, and have a limited speed of operation.
Further for example, with regard to a mold plate drive assembly and connected linkage which drives reciprocation of a mold plate between a fill position and a patty discharge position, the linkage is attached to the mold plate by only a few bolt fasteners that can slip or loosen over an extended operation.
As can be seen, the present state of the art of drive systems incorporated into food product molding machines has definite shortcomings. Further, the state of the art of mold drive assemblies and mold plate connections in food product molding machines has shortcomings.